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Select moments in TechSangam’s brief history
Pic courtesy nofatclips.com Rumors of TechSangam’s demise are greatly exaggerated. This post was meant to be about this. (But DON’T click on that link just yet… indulge me for a few more paragraphs...
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John Cochrane’s Mooconomics
John Cochrane, pic courtesy his blog [Editor's Note: After a long time, I've read a most EXCELLENT post on state of the state of moocs. The author is John Cochrane, professor at University of...
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Say hello to TechSangam 2.0
Pic courtesy bokardo.com When I moved to Bangalore in 2008, I looked around for the “Indian TechCrunch”. There wasn’t one. Many single author blogs but no standout — either in content or writing...
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Embracing the “tech” in TechSangam
I’m a huge fan of Marc Andreessen. I won’t wax eloquent about Andreessen but draw attention to his 2011 WSJ article Why software is eating the world. The article (specifically the title/quote)...
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Twelve things about Bitcoin that you probably didn’t know
[Editor's Note: Earlier this year, Marc Andreessen wrote an article about Bitcoin in Wall Street Journal. It was insightful especially for folks (like me) who were NOT following this topic with...
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Sankalp Unconvention Entrepreneur Scholarships 2014
Sankalp and I go back a long way. Well, not very long but three years. [2011] If I was looking for inspiration.. I found it at Sankalp Forum [2012] Five reasons to be excited about Sankalp [2013] Why...
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Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship: 2014
Pic courtesy skollworldforum.org The Skoll Foundation presents the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship each year to transformative leaders who are disrupting the status quo, driving large-scale...
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Why Bill Gates’s Toilet of the Future might be too First Worldy
Almost two years ago, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation declared Caltech as the winner of Reinvent the Toilet Challenge. Caltech’s Toilet of the Future (pic webpronews.com) A solar-powered toilet that...
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Behold the unassuming Ugly Indian
Behold the Ugly Indian. The Kaam Chalu Mooh Bandh Ugly Indian. The non-preachy Ugly Indian. The not-your-activist Ugly Indian. The anonymous Ugly Indian. The inspiring Ugly Indian. The unassuming Ugly...
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ISB iDiya calling all social entrepreneurs
Calling all social impact ideas & innovations!! 10 best ideas get a week-long all-expenses-paid bootcamp to ISB. Cash reward of Rs 2 Lakhs for winner. Over a crore of seed funding. Make the...
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More coaching less schooling
IITs to release 50 years of solved JEE Question Papers!! India’s Human Resources Department (akin to Department of Education in US and elsewhere) made this decision after consultation with the IITs...
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Why doing good with tech is hard
The blog comes alive.. or should I say “starting to flicker” after years. Thanks to my morning Twitter timeline, I read this beautiful piece by Jonathan Stray (computer scientist and investigative...
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Dropping the social in social entrepreneur
About 9 months into my TechSangam blogging journey (that would be circa 2012), I was one of the guest bloggers at the Villgro Unconvention 2011. I recall a discussion where panelists were asked to...
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If you don’t believe in your idea, take the money
The term sheet was in our inbox and we had the customary 2-3 days to respond. We had much to be happy about. After all, the term sheet was from one of the blue-chip VC firms with two celebrity...
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Insights from 3 Silicon Valley angels
What is it about startup life that makes it seem way longer than it was? My recent mGaadi journey lasted 3 yrs 8 months but it felt like 5 years. My previous journey (Graspr) lasted an intense 13...
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Unconditional transfers approaching primetime
Since I first read about unconditional transfers (in Banerjee and Duflo’s Poverty Economics book), I’ve been fascinated about this seemingly this-cant-possibly-work approach to foreign aid. Later I...
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Farmer cooperative to Farmveda in 7 years
Is it a coincidence that I invoke Dr. Trilochan Sastry in yesterday’s post and today there’s a message from him in my Inbox? Either that or I have psychic powers. Dear Sir/ Ma’am,To give you a bit of...
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We’ve got cash – you’ve got mail
That’s the tag line for GiveDirectly, a 10-year old US-based non-profit making waves in 9 African countries. “Cash” for unconditional cash transfers and “you’ve got mail” for the m-Pesa notification...
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Bangalore’s social enterprises – 2020 redux
This 2012 piece where I catalogued Bangalore’s social enterprises (30 of them) continues to be a popular destination for Google searchers. This is a redux post – essentially a 2020 update just by...
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Raghu, the cycle repair guy
You go down Tavarekere Main Road or as Bangalorean direction-givers are apt to say “straaaaaaaaiiiiiitu” until you almost reach, what looks like a dead-end but upon closer examination, is a fork in...
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